


Falling

by TylertheBoosh



Series: Under the bed [2]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, University, student!hongjoong, student!mingi, who even knows what this is??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 09:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17805332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylertheBoosh/pseuds/TylertheBoosh
Summary: Hongjoong bumps into someone familiar





	Falling

**Author's Note:**

> Fellas i'm gonna be honest can't believe I wrote this in a day because I was so hyped about the first one saldfskdf its shorter but hope its up to standard B) I was gonna wait to post it but why not post it now if I've got it now??

Hongjoong is twenty and he hasn’t thought about Mingi for over a year now. At least, that’s what he tells himself. He has friends and although his parents divorced he still talks to them both regularly, and looks forward to the trips he makes home from university. It isn’t the house he grew up in, but he thinks that’s for the best. 

He fills his time with work and play: serving coffees and thinking about his next assignment, then watching films with his friends in their flat. It doesn’t feel like anything is missing for Hongjoong, not really. He grows out his hair a little and dyes it different colours, he writes music no one will ever hear, he thinks about Mingi. 

Winter comes with snow and ice that blankets the campus. Hongjoong’s boots slip and slide but he’s determined to make it to his class early for once, and as he hurries, he knows it’s only a matter of time before…

His feet go from under him and he closes his eyes, waiting for the impact of his head on the pavement, but it doesn’t come. Instead he feels himself getting caught and lowered gently to the ground. 

“Sorry! I wasn’t quick enough to catch you completely, are you okay?” 

Something in Hongjoong doesn’t want to open his eyes. Feeling the snow melt into his trousers, Hongjoong sits up, rubbing at his face so he didn’t have to see who saved him. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, thank you. I’ve got class so… thanks again,” he stutters out, grabbing his bag and standing. He bows just enough to the stranger – only looking at the man’s shoes – before walking away.

Hongjoong sits in the classroom, his notebook and pen on the desk and his hands in his pockets fumbling for his student card. His front pockets, back pockets, jacket pockets, he finds nothing except lint and a few coins. He sighs, knowing he lost it somewhere on the way to class and hoping to a higher power that someone’s handed it in at Student Services by the time his class ends. 

By the end of the class, Hongjoong’s lip is bitten and bloody from worry and he is the first out the room as soon as the teacher dismisses them. The line to Student Services is long and Hongjoong waits impatiently. Someone joins the queue behind him. 

“Oh!” the man behind him says, though Hongjoong assumes it’s about something else until he’s tapped on the shoulder. “I was just about to hand your card in.” 

Hongjoong’s heart stops, or maybe it falls out his chest, he can’t tell. He gapes like a fish and Mingi smiles wide, waving the card. Hongjoong takes the card from him, and takes a moment to just stare. 

Mingi’s hair isn’t blue and purple like he remembers, but a soft brown that falls gently over his forehead. He looks older too, Hongjoong thinks. 

“Thank you,” Hongjoong says, averting his eyes. 

“I guess I can step out the line now, I was only going to hand that in,” Mingi laughs. Hongjoong is thrown back to being sixteen laughing with his Mingi in his bedroom. 

They step to the side, allowing others through. 

“Yeah, I was going to ask if they had my card,” Hongjoong sounds breathless but if Mingi notices he doesn’t say anything. 

“It’s lucky I caught you… both times,” Mingi pets Hongjoong’s elbow. 

Hongjoong nods. 

“Well, I’ll see you around?” Mingi says, making to leave. Hongjoong’s brain takes a minute to catch up with him. 

“Wait!” he calls after Mingi, who stops and turns. Hongjoong closes the gap between them. “Are you busy? Can I buy you a drink? Or a coffee? For finding my card.” 

“I’m not busy, and I like coffee.” 

“Great, I work at a café round the corner, it’s got good coffee.” They start to walk together, Hongjoong’s short legs struggling to keep up with the other man. 

“Cool. What’s your name, by the way?” 

Oh, Hongjoong thinks, this isn’t his Mingi. His name might not even be Mingi, and suddenly Hongjoong wants to run. 

“Hongjoong, Kim Hongjoong. I’m a second year,” Hongjoong says. 

“Hongjoong, I’m Mingi,” the definitely Mingi says, holding out his hand to shake. Hongjoong take it tentatively and Mingi laughs. “I’m a second year too. Audio technology, what about you?” 

“I’m doing pop composition.” 

“Very cool!” Mingi nods. “You know, for an assignment this semester I have to mix a piece of original music, I was supposed to find someone from another course…” 

Hongjoong sees where this is going.

“Would you be willing to let me use one of yours? If you’re okay with that, obviously. I can always ask someone else.” 

Hongjoong takes a moment. Something in him is screaming to run so far away, to never see this Mingi again because his heart is hurting and his head feels light. But he couldn’t imagine not seeing him again. It’s the same Mingi. Maybe not his monster, but somehow it was him. 

Across the table in the cafe, Hongjoong watches Mingi lean forward to sip his iced coffee. 

“What would you do with it if I let you use one of my tracks?” Hongjoong asks. 

Mingi raises his eyebrows, “Well I would get some people on my course to play the instruments and mix it and make it my own a bit. Add in a few things more similar to my taste and see what happens. I’m pretty free to do what I want with it, as long as the composer is happy.” 

“So you’d be making my song better?” Hongjoong laughs. 

Mingi winks at him, “Pretty much.” 

“Let’s do it. It would be cool to have my song done properly.” 

Somehow Mingi grins wider. “Thank you.” 

“You caught me when I fell,” Hongjoong says, as if it's an explanation. 

A few days pass before Hongjoong’s phone buzzes with Mingi’s name. 

“Hello?” 

“Hongjoong! It’s Mingi. How are you doing?” Mingi sounds happy, Hongjoong notices. 

“I’m doing good, you?” 

“I’m good! I wanted to ask if you could send me some of your tracks so I can pick one to work on?” 

Hongjoong bites his lip, “I’m just about to head back to the flat, are you around? I could send them once I’m back but I wanted to talk them through with you.” 

“Sure, I’m in the library but I’ll come to meet you and we can go back together, if that’s okay?” Mingi says. 

“Oh, yeah that’s great, I’ll wait outside the main entrance for you.” 

Mingi hugs Hongjoong as soon as he sees him, warming him in the cold wind, and they chat idly on the way to Hongjoong’s flat. 

Kicking off his shoes instantly, Mingi makes himself at home and lays down on Hongjoong’s bed, a mattress on the floor, with an arm behind his head. 

“I’m ready, play it!” he announces, closing his eyes. 

Hongjoong takes a seat at his desk and clicks play. After a few tracks, Mingi stops him. 

“This one, can I use this one?” 

Crossing his legs, he sits up to look at Hongjoong hopefully.

“You like it?” 

“Hongjoongie, I love it. I liked them all but this one is something else.” 

Hongjoong glows in the praise and nods, “You can use this one.” 

“Thank you!” Mingi says, watching as Hongjoong sends him the track. When Hongjoong turns to look at Mingi, Mingi is looking at him with an emotion he can’t place. 

“What?” Hongjoong asks. “Is there something wrong?” 

Mingi says, “No, not wrong.” 

“What then?” 

“I don’t know,” Mingi cocks his head, “I feel like I’ve met you before. Do you know what I mean?” 

Hongjoong’s breath gets caught in his throat. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” 

Mingi shrugs, but doesn’t stop looking at him. “Maybe when we were kids?” 

“Maybe,” Hongjoong really isn’t sure where Mingi is going with this, or how it’s even possible. He has no idea what happened that night when his monster Mingi disappeared and he isn’t sure if he wants to know. Wouldn’t it be impossible for this to be his Mingi? This Mingi was human, as far as he knew. 

Hongjoong tells him where he grew up, in hopes it might jog something that probably wasn’t there. 

Mingi sighs and at Hongjoong’s questioning look, he says, “I don’t know where I grew up, I don’t have memories from before I was sixteen. My parents and I were in a car crash. They died and I lost my memory.” Mingi smiles sadly. 

“Oh God I’m sorry,” Hongjoong moves to sit next to him on the bed, resting a hand on his leg in comfort. Then he realises. No memory from before the age of sixteen? That would match with when his Mingi disappeared, but maybe it was just wishful thinking. 

“It’s okay. I don’t remember them, so how can I miss them? How can I miss something I don’t remember?” Mingi says, and Hongjoong feels like there’s something unsaid. Hongjoong rubs circles into his leg. “So I was living in a children’s home til I came here. I had a few friends there but I like uni better.” 

Hongjoong nods, “I didn’t really have friends until uni. I…” he debates whether to say it, “I used to talk to the monster under my bed. I know that’s weird but… I did. I think he took care of me,” he breaths a laugh as tears gather in the corners of his eyes. 

Mingi pulls him into a hug and again Hongjoong feels a pang of nostalgia. He wants to cry into Mingi’s shirt like he did a few weeks before his parents split up, he wants to hold his hand and ask him not to leave again because the first time was hard enough, he wants Mingi to remember him. 

But he doesn’t cry, he doesn’t hold his hand, and Mingi doesn’t remember him. Finally, Hongjoong pulls away, wiping his eyes. 

“I’m going to get some tissue,” Hongjoong stands and moves to the bathroom. 

“I’ll be here.” 

For a second, everything stops. Hongjoong isn’t sure he’s even breathing anymore as he watches Mingi’s face cycle through so many emotions he can’t name. Mingi’s eyes close and Hongjoong sees his shoulders rise and fall, then Mingi looks up. 

“Hongjoong?” his voice is small. 

“Mingi,” Hongjoong breathes, stepping towards the bed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t recognise you.”

**Author's Note:**

> there's defo gonna be a part three, maybe tomorrow or the next day depending on everything im.. kinda in love with how this went?? I didn't think I liked it all that much as I was writing but I love their friendship sm :(


End file.
